Visiting One of Saturn's Rings
by shana2
Summary: seventh year fic... homecoming is coming up at hogwarts. lily and james write personals ads for fun, and get responses. this is better than it seems, trust me.
1.

Visiting One of Saturn's Rings by shana shanaisme@hotmail.com aim: meshananotu  
  
books hp pre-1981 romance pg  
  
Lily Evans was in her dorm room sulking on her bed, reading a note she had stolen just before Charms from the bookbag of one of her best friends; Tarika, or Riky for short. It was from Dan Michetti—a seventh year like them, but in Ravenclaw and not Gryffindor. Lily was almost obsessed with him; his name was all over the inside of her bookbag and was doodled on to any of her homework assignments that she was working on when she started daydreaming. Potions and Charms were the only classes Gryffindor had with Ravenclaw—lucky for her, those were the easiest classes and she was able to spend most of her time almost drooling over Dan, who was usually working with the popular Gryffindor boys.  
  
But, as it turned out, Dan was obviously not drooling over her like she had hoped he was. Reading the note, she felt—vividly—her heart breaking as she found out that Dan wanted to meet Riky at Hogsmeade. Again. Which meant that they had met earlier. And Riky knew of Lily's almost-obsession: she was the one who always made fun of Lily for not 'keeping her options open' and 'obsessing over one hot guy.'   
  
"Well excuse me!" Lily said aloud. "Who said she could talk? She's practically playing Michael!" Michael Chévrèmonte was Riky's boyfriend, and also one of their fellow Gryffindor seventh years. "Oh, wait. They broke up yesterday." It had been a mutual breakup in the common room the night before; both parties wanted to see other people and "weren't getting enough action."  
  
Lily, on the other hand, had gotten her fair share of action, and had shunned all of the popular boys because of that since the end of her fourth year. The Homecoming dance was coming up, and it wasn't something she was looking forward to.They had become boring the first time she went, back in her fifth year, because of being dateless. No one wanted to ask out the popular-gone-invisible Lily Evans, who had once been invincible in Charms, a champion skiier, and the most popular girl in Hogwarts. But not anymore. The time for all that had passed.  
  
It was definitely time to move on, she reminded her self yet again, crumpling up the note and tossing it to the bed closest to the door. It was a far throw—three beds were between her's and Riky's, and she had to throw between the top of the bed and the bottom or it would bounce down. A summer in America playing baseball with her cousins had helped her pitching arm. Lily put her face on her pillow.  
  
She could feel the tears welling up under her scrunched shut eyelids.  
  
  
*  
  
  
James waved to one of the girls passing him in the Charms hallway. She had blown him a kiss over the rushing crowd. 'What was her name again? Oh yeah, Brianna,' he reminded himself. She was one of the chosen few he was considering asking to the Homecoming dance. It was in exactly two weeks, the third Friday of the school year. Of course, he was one of the most popular boys in Hogwarts, and he had to admit that it went to his head once in a while. But he still had to find a date worthy of going to Homecoming with him.  
  
Homecoming at Hogwarts was different from Homecoming in American and English schools. There was no football or soccer games, just a time off for fifth-years-and-above that went from noon on Friday to midnight Saturday. It was a ski outing in the mountains behind the school and a dance with lots of cocoa, marshmallows, and a buffet line. It was definitely one of the better Hogwarts holidays, in James's opinion.  
  
If you had asked James during his third or fourth year who he would go to Homecoming with in his fifth, sixth, or even seventh year, he would have said his ex's name immediately. They had gone out for two years straight, plus the summer after their second year. After a horrendously loud fight on the Hogwarts Express during the trip back home for the summer when their fourth year ended, they broke up permanently. It was stuck smack dab in the middle of his rep, and everybody from the engineer to the witch that sold pastries heard them shouting over the drone of the train. He still repented that day; he had really liked the girl.  
  
But now, Brianna was on his mind. Charms class flew by. He gave it his usual negative-thirty percent effort until the bell rang, when he followed the rest of the class out the door.  
  
Someone pounded his back. "Hey, man, where were you during class? Visiting one of Saturn's rings?"  
  
"Just thinking," he said, turning to see Dan Michetti, Ravenclaw seventh year.  
  
"Whoa, that's a first."  
  
"Shut up, Michetti."  
  
"Hey, you were zonked—seriously. Homecoming on your mind?"  
  
"Yeah. It's in exactly one week and I still have to find a date."  
  
"Well, I've got my date covered. I'm going with Tarika."  
  
"Evans's best friend?" This was new.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Really?" James thought of something he had overheard some Gryffindor seventh year girls saying. "Well, I happen to know a little something about—"  
  
"Tell me later; I have to go see Riky at lunch." Dan stepped ahead of James and half-jogged to the front of the group going towards the Great Hall.  
  
" 'Kay, see ya," he called to the retreating figure. He watched Dan kiss Riky on the cheek—something they obviously wouldn't do had a certain someone been there.  
  
James smirked a bit. This was juicy—he had heard that Lily Evans was obsessed with Dan, but wait'll she found out that her best friend was going out with him! He looked in front of him, where the rest of his Charms class was by now, for a flash of red hair. Come to think of it, he hadn't seen the familiar fiery red hair all Charms class. He frowned. Usually Lily steered clear of his crowd for some reason, but he sometimes heard her laugh from the other end of the room. And he was one for cutting boring classes—but Evans? Nah. She had the top grade of the class in Charms. It came easy to her, like Transfiguration for him.  
  
But there must have been a reason for her to cut class. James doubled back and headed towards the Gryffindor tower.  
  
  
*  
  
  
Lily woke about an hour later. She had cried herself to sleep, something she hadn't done since her first day home after her fourth year. But today there was a different reason for her crying. She stood up, aware that the room was dark—someone must have pulled the window shades, unless they automatically pulled themselves; one never knew at Hogwarts. Lighting her wand, she saw that the room was empty but for her. It was either the middle of Charms or lunch, she concluded. She headed down to the common room, but stopped at the door.  
  
Footsteps. She heard footsteps. She sprinted back to her bed and threw herself underneath it. Putting an invisible item charm on the bedskirts, she watched the doorknob open and the door slowly swing on its hinges. She caught her breath in her throat. "James?" she croaked, almost silently. What was he doing in here? In the seventh year girls' dorm? In the middle of class?  
  
"Hey, Evans," James stage-whispered to the whole room, obviously hoping Lily would hear. "Have I got news for you!" He walked closer to her bed—how had he known which was hers?—and transfigured the comb on her nightstand into a torch. He turned it on, and Lily had to shut her eyes to the light bulb in it. So he didn't know how to open the shades.   
  
Lily squinted and watched a puzzled look cross James's face as he scanned the room with the torch. 'Good,' she thought. 'I confused him.' Suddenly, he pulled the bedskirt up and shined the light in her face. She screamed.  
  
"Good god, James! Did you have to do that?" He dragged her out from under the bed and grinned. She stood up and wiped the dust off of her clothes and wand.  
  
"Of course. Did you expect less of me?"  
  
"Surprisingly, yes."  
  
"So, did I interrupt something between you and the carpet?"  
  
"Oh, shut up, you sicko." Lily held back her smile. She hadn't spoken to James in a long time, and was starting to remember how his head worked.  
  
"Just checking. Are you still afraid or the monsters in the closet or something, 'cause I see no other reason for you to be hiding under your bed"  
  
"No. How did you know which was my bed?" She voiced the question that had been spinning in her head.  
  
"I have an excellent memory."  
  
"Oh."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
The conversation stopped for a while, as both of them shifted their weight uncomfortably. Lily leaned on one of the bedposts.  
  
"So, uh, why'd you come up here?" Lily asked quietly, sliding down the post and sitting cross-legged on the floor.  
  
"Why'd you cut class?" James replied in retaliation.  
  
"What time is it anyways?" She looked up at James, who was putting the torch on Lily's bed and pointing it towards the back wall. He looked at his wrist and shook his head rapidly for a moment.  
  
"Forgot my watch. But lunch just started when I came out here."  
  
"Charms ended?"  
  
"Yeah." He nodded slowly, to illustrate his point.  
  
"I get it." Her stomach growled and she blushed.  
  
"Hungry?" James's grin lit his face; he must have had an idea.  
  
"Yeah." Lily watched him go to the trunk at the end of her bed and pull out a chocolate frog wrapper—the first her ex had bought her. She wondered why she hadn't thrown it away. It had a lot of sentimental value, she figured. James tapped it with his wand and miraculously, he suddenly held in the wrapper four miniature chocolate frogs.  
  
"I can't make full-sized ones yet, but they're as good as the original," he explained, placing the open wrapper on the ground in front of her. She looked up and gave him a gracious smile.  
  
  
*  
  
  
Over an hour later, James finally stood up from sitting on Lily's bed and left her dorm, heading towards his. Both of them had decided on skipping Potions, seeing as they already missed the first part of it.  
  
Sometime during the time he had made five more frogs—the last was in case Lily felt hungry later—he had realized why Lily had cut class. When he had first gone into the room, he had seen the crumpled paper sitting on the bed closest to the door. At first he had wondered what it was, but when Lily went into the bathroom to fix her hair something like that, he had summoned the note and read it.  
  
Written on it was familiar slanted handwriting, giving away that it was written by the only lefty he knew: Dan Michetti. It explained a lot and was pretty easy to understand; Lily likes Dan, Dan ignores Lily, Dan goes out with Riky, Lily cuts class. He also figured that skipping Potions was a good idea, since they had it with the Ravenclaws.  
  
The reason had hit him so suddenly that one of the miniature frogs he made was wrapped and, when opened, had a small card in it; his Quidditch card, which he had designed during an especially boring Charms class. Lily had insisted on keeping it and had stuffed it into the drawer in her nightstand before James could reject the idea.  
  
Now, James was sitting in the armchair closest to the fire in the Gryffindor common room. He had turned the chair so the back was facing anyone who would walk in and look in his direction, and he was staring into the fire itself.  
  
James was doing a lot of thinking. He had decided to ask Brianna to Homecoming—he hoped that she was a good skiier, because he always skipped the bunny hills and went down the Suicide Hill every time. After he was sick of downhill, he would strap on some cross-country skis and go through the light forest in the mountains. At the dance, he would always join the Breakdance Minute, for those who actually knew how to. James could breakdance a little, but not as good as the African kid in Hufflepuff who apparently had taken lessons before coming to Hogwarts.  
  
He took a deep breath, remembering that he was eligible for Homecoming King—and three 'Get out of detention free' permits if he won. Those would be used well, in case he got a detention during the full moon. Or if he decided to go to Hogsmeade or something.  
  
He realized skipping lunch hadn't made him hungry; he had eaten enough chocolate frogs with Lily. Feeling sleepy for some reason—as one usually does after eating that much Wizard chocolate—he stuffed his glasses into his pocket and drifted off to dreamland.  
  
  
* 


	2. 

Visiting One of Saturn's Rings chapter 2 by shana shanaisme@hotmail.com aim: meshananotu  
  
books hp pre-1981 romance pg  
  
An owl flew into Lily's dorm room. She looked up, acknowledged its presence as it sailed in through the open window, and dropped her head back on to her pillow. She had learned how to breath through pillows; after three and one-half days of doing it, you get used to it. No magic needed. She sighed, but held it back. Sighing wasted good air and heated up the pillowcase beneath her. Nope, not good. Her breathing became even—as did her heartbeat.  
  
Something pecked at Lily's shoulder. She swatted at it until it stopped. The pecking resumed, this time on the back of her hand. She shoved her hand under her pillow and looked up, ready to break the twig she assumed someone had hexed to annoy her. A flurry of feathers brushed against her hair.  
  
"Oh, I get it," she said, realization hitting her and making her utter her first words in three and a half days. "You're delivering the Daily Prophet for someone and expect me to pay for it. Not gonna happen."  
  
The owl swatted her head with its wing and threw the newspaper in its beak at her lap. The whole front page held one article, and it was titled, "Homecoming Nearby".  
  
"Like I need this," Lily said, to the owl. When there was no peck of understanding, she looked up. The owl had already flown away. She looked at the title of the paper—Hogsmead Herald. 'Hmm,' she thought, 'I didn't know Hogsmeade had a newspaper.' She looked at the Homecoming article again and started reading.  
  
"Homecoming Nearby  
by Rita Skeeter, Hogwarts correspondent  
*-*—*-*  
HOGWARTS — For fifth years and older at   
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizard-  
ry, the most anticipated time of year is   
almost here.  
Homecoming at Hogwarts will be taking   
place this Friday. It will begin with a ski   
outing in the mountains behind the school,   
which usually has a race between the   
fastest girl and the fastest boy. Last   
year's race was boring, in this reporter's   
opinion, for Hogwarts' fastest girl opted   
out of it.  
The ski outing is usually followed by a   
buffet and a dance in the Great Hall.   
Cocoa, as always, will be there by the   
kegful, and in self-refilling goblets for a   
price. Marshmallows, contrary to popular   
beliefs, are not made of skeletons and will   
be there—in jet puffed and miniature sizes.   
It is confirmed that there will be a widely   
renown band there, but Hogwarts' personell   
has kept its name under wraps.  
As of tradition, there will be a King and   
Queen elected by students. Since there  
is a special Hogsmeade 'Best Teen Couple'  
contest going on here at the Herald, the  
couple selected will become nominees for  
the contest. Rumor inside Hogwarts has   
it that..."  
  
  
*  
  
  
"Checkmate."  
  
James looked up from the list he was making; the pros and cons of asking Brianna to Homecoming. "That's impossible!" He took a quick glance across the board and realized that he had lost. His king stomped its foot and threw his crown down. James added, "I don't get it. This is the first time you beat me in seven years. This is definitely one for the record books."  
  
"Ah, well, maybe fate was on my side," Sirius said, smirking.  
  
"Eh?" James questioned, folding up his list and stuffing it in his pocket.  
  
"You lose the game, you lose the bet."  
  
"What?" His hand went to his pocket instinctively.  
  
"I'm not going to read your love letter, James. You just lose the bet—so you have to turn in the form."  
  
"Oh, come on! You don't really expect me to put a personals ad in the Hogsmeade paper!"  
  
"A bet is a bet, James."  
  
"But I didn't anticipate losing to you!"  
  
"Neither did I, but it happened. Fork over the form."  
  
"I didn't fill it out."  
  
"What? That was part of the rules! Both of us filled it out and then we began the chess game."  
  
"Like I said, I didn't think I'd lose to you."  
  
"I know that already. Here, I'll erase mine."  
  
No less than fifteen minutes later, James had filled out the form with un-erasable ink (as Sirius was sure to check) and had taken one of the secret passageways into Hogsmeade. He now was standing in the office that the Hogsmeade Herald operated out of. Sirius was beside him, looking around at the opposite-of-drab surroundings. The woman at the receiving counter kept looking at James suggestively, which finally propelled him to just leave the counter and look for a door possibly marked "Personals."  
  
It was all the way in the back of the building. It was, in fact, marked "Personals." It had a large banner over the top of the doorway, proclaiming "25 years of perfect matches—the Hogsmeade Herald", which made James wonder as he knocked the door if they really always made perfect couples.  
  
"It's him!" called someone on the other side of the door. It squeaked quietly as it opened.  
  
"Ignore Kayla; she thinks every guy who walks in here is going to be part of the Best Teen Couple."  
  
James stared at an astonishingly beautiful woman in front of him. He blinked quickly, closed his mouth, and said, "Oh, uh, okay."  
  
"But Kayla might be right this time..." The woman grinned and glanced at the girl with cat-eyed glasses sitting in an armchair on the other side of the room, leaning over a thick book. She eyed James and seemed to be blind to Sirius. "Come in. I'm Jessie Lerry, and that's Kayla Schumitz. I'm twenty-two, and she's twenty-four. We're probably too old for you."  
  
"I could deal with you." The witty side of James shone through for a flickering moment.  
  
"Same here. So, lemme guess; you're from Hogwarts, lost a bet, and were sent here to put in an ad."  
  
James was genuinely surprised. "How did you know?"  
  
"Your friend behind you is holding up a sign."  
  
James turned around and flicked Sirius in the side of the head. He stepped into the room. "So, how does this work anyway?" He sat on a black stool, his gaze wavering between Kayla and Jessie, who had plopped on to a blue beanbag chair.  
  
Kayla spoke first. "I would tell you, but I'm updating our database right now. Jess?"  
  
"I'll tell you, uh..." she faded.  
  
"James."  
  
"James, then. I'll tell you. We put your name into this book, followed by your interests and birth month and date. The year isn't used because most people don't want to tell their match their age. We use your star sign too, for some reason. I think whoever started this section was a Divinator. So, anway, we give you a number based on your information and when we find someone who comes within three digits of your number, we owl you and send you to Le Champagne free of charge. You just have to get there. And we might be able to find you someone before Homecoming."  
  
"No need for that; James was just writing a love letter to his date," Sirius put in. James blushed.  
  
"It wasn't a love letter, but I do have a date." Not technically, he thought, but yeah. He remembered the list in his pocket and his hand patted it for a second.  
  
"Well, you'll have fun anyway. So, have a form?" Jessie asked James.  
  
"Yeah." He handed the paper to her.  
  
"You can leave, unless you want to hang around here." She handed the slip to Kayla, who looked it over quickly and sent a series of ribbon-like numbers into the air above her with a flick of her wand. "That's your number: 3181981. Wow, you must be popular."  
  
"How can you tell? My number?"  
  
"Yup; all the ones and eights. And you should write it down."  
  
He pulled the list from his pocket, along with a Muggle ballpoint pen. "Am doing...one-nine-eight-one. That's it. And you'll owl me?" James asked, putting the parchment in his pocket.  
  
"Yeah. See ya."  
  
"Bye, James and Sirius!" Kayla shouted.  
  
"Bye," they called back.  
  
"You put your name on the sign, too?" James asked Sirius, pushing open the front door to the building and ignoring the receptionist.  
  
"Of course." He grinned. James rolled his eyes.  
  
They headed towards the passageway to Hogwarts.  
  
  
*  
  
  
Lily was back in classes. Everywhere she walked, people stared, knowing of her four days of sulking. But now, she was almost glowing, and a mischievious smile was permanently planted on her face.   
  
She spoke to no one, least of all Riky, except for insulting people twice. This surprised everyone, but they assumed that this was another one of her stages, like when she hated all popular people even when she had been one herself. Riky thought it as aftermath of Lily finding out about her and Dan. In a way, it was. But not really.  
  
James had received the Lily Evans Insult in Defense Against the Dark Arts when his shrinking potion 'accidentally' splashed by someone on to a certain place where shrinking is not wanted. Accidents in the magical world do not happen. And Dan, in Charms, was attacked by the LEI when he failed to be able to banish a cushion—review from their fourth year. Then, she had sent a pillow flying at his head and said, "Can't talk through the stuffing? I thought you were used to it, since that's what your head is full of." This had brought laughs all around, but a mysterious look from James, who had been with her the previous Friday and remembered her state. She figured that he came to the conclusion that it was a 'girl thing' and he shouldn't mess with her.   
  
Well, she wished.  
  
  
* 


	3. 

Visiting One of Saturn's Rings chapter 3 by shana shanaisme@hotmail.com aim: meshananotu  
  
books hp pre-1981 romance pg  
  
People stopped what they were doing and turned towards the person who had just spoken the series of inappropriate-around-teachers exclamations. Chess games lay left alone, kings shouting for game; a set of Exploding Snap cards exploded; a Zonko's firecracker flew towards the fireplace and blew up in a shining array of colored light. A moment of silence was for some reason going on.   
  
Lily Evans was holding an unusually thin envelope and was staring after the owl that had just delivered it, which was now flying out one of the high windows. All eyes glanced up for a second then focused back on the redhead standing and now gawking at the envelope in her hands. She opened it, slowly pulling out the single sheet of parchment it enclosed, obviously realizing that the whole of the common room—even the people in the portraits—had slightly edged towards her. She was having a great time making a show to her eager to know fellow students.   
  
James, unlike everyone else in the common room, had his eyes trained on the window instead of what Lily was holding. Another owl was flying through the window. Someone else noticed; now everybody was looking up again. It flew towards James, dropping a bulky letter on to his head and flying right back out the window. He turned slightly red, having learned how to control his blushes a long time ago, and muttered something about his mother liking to write long letters.   
  
In normal circumstances, one would have laughed, but these were some weird circumstances. Only one person laughed: Lily Evans. She gave a loud guffaw, followed by a lot of snorts and chuckles. The ringing of her laughter followed her up the stairs to the dorms, obviously heading towards the seventh year girls' room. She carried the envelope and the parchment in her hand.   
  
Noise started again, mostly consisting of idle chatter referring to what had just happened. Chess games were revisited, angry bishops now clashing into castles with violent feeling. And Exploding Snap card house being built on one of the tables suddenly went off and singed a fourth year's eyebrows, leaving a trail of smoke behind him as he ran to the infirmary. A Zonko's liquid-start firecracker was sent towards a second year's head, turning her hair bright scarlet and gold—for Gryffindor, of course. Normal laughter resumed in the easy atmosphere of the common room.   
  
All this happened in less than three minutes.   
  
  
*   
  
  
Lily went into her common room and slammed the door shut. She leaned against it and bent over slightly, panting heavily. The envelope actually meant a lot more than she had pretended it was when she received it. Thoughts of panic raced through her mind. How could she have known that the Hogsmeade Herald would actually reply to her personals ad?   
  
"Lily?"   
  
She looked up. "Oh, hi Melissa." It was one of her roommates whom she hadn't noticed when she'd run into the room.   
  
"It's mul-ees-ee-ya; there's a y in it," the girl said, enunciating clearly from her position on her bed, the one in the middle of the row of beds. Lily figured Melissya's parents had wanted to make a plain name into one that was out of the ordinary.   
  
"Sure, whatever you say. Sorry, that, uh—you know, you had to see that."   
  
"It's okay." She opened her mouth to say something, but thought twice and shut it.   
  
Lily regained herself and walked towards her bed. As she passed Melissya's, she heard, "Is something wrong? Do you have asthma or something?"   
  
"No, nothing of the sort." She chuckled a little to show the idiosyncrasy of the idea, but it got caught in her throat.   
  
"Cramps?"   
  
"Not this time. Just, uh, a letter I got."   
  
Lily's momentary hesitation caused Melissya's jaw drop and the thought gone 'round the world to take command. "You have a boyfriend?"   
  
'So much for someone who hasn't heard the stories,' Lily thought. "Yes, I'm straight," she said sarcastically. "But of course. No, I don't have a boyfriend. Anymore."   
  
"Why, did you break up or something? Is that a breakup letter?"   
  
Exasperated, Lily said, "You don't gossip much, do you? I haven't gone out with someone in a long while."   
  
She seemed to ignore Lily's first comment. "So what's with the letter? Oh, and you can sit on my bed if you want."   
  
'Who said I wanted to? And why is she so inquistive?' Lily wondered. "Okay." She sat on the edge, her legs dangling over the edge and staring into the thick scarlet shag carpet.   
  
"And...the letter?"   
  
"Oh, that. It's from the Hogsmeade paper. Just for me to go there on Thursday night."   
  
"Why would the paper send you something instead of telling the school to inform you about it?"   
  
"Because."   
  
"Thursday's not a Hogsmeade day. How'll you get there?"   
  
"Could you just chill with the questions? I have my ways." Lily stood up and went to her bed. She could feel Melissya's eyes boring into her back as she jumped on to her bed and pulled the curtains. Suddenly, she realized that she left the envelope on Melissya's bed.   
  
  
*   
  
  
Moaning filled James's ears as he slowly examined his envelope. He sat in a stall in an out of order girls' bathroom, on a stool he transfigured from the toliet. A single light bulb hung on a chain above him.   
  
Annoyed by the noise, he exclaimed, "Oh, shut up Myrtle. I don't care if you forgot what smoked salmon tastes like."   
  
His finger skimmed across his name on the front. It was written with raven black ink, in flowing script—magic quill generated, for no one could have handwriting that scriptual.   
  
A loud moan followed by three short sobs and a questioning statement came from a few stalls to his right. "No, I never threw up salmon through my nose!" he replied. "I almost don't care that you died. Now could you give me some quiet? Please?!" The sound lessened as Moaning Myrtle splashed into the pipework of her toliet. James sighed, having resorted to the only thing that shut Myrtle up.   
  
James lifted the envelope. It was heavy; there had to be at least twenty sheets of parchment inside it. He already had half a clue of its contents—the number 3181981 was on the outside below his name, so it had to be something from the Hogsmeade paper. Why their answer was shoved among so much parchment, he had no idea. He slid his finger under the seal—rose colored wax, with a large 'H' and a quill imprinted on it. All the parchment inside suddenly flattened until there was a single sheet in the envelope. 'Interesting spell,' James thought, slipping out the paper. He read it silently to himself.   
  
"James Potter—   
Please dress in formal wear for dinner on Thursday at Le Champagne inside Hogsmeade. There you will meet:   
| Number 3181980 | Female | Witch | enjoys Charm-work | 17 Years of age | 5' 7" tall | of Swedish origin six generations back |   
Sincerely, \ the Hogsmeade Herald \ "   
  
The lines with the girl's information was written in plain block letters, so plain it too could not have been written by a person. He read over her traits once more. Five feet seven inches tall? What girl did he know who was that tall? Then, he realized that he probably didn't know her anyway. She was Swedish, huh? Must be a blond haired-blue eyed wonder, James thought, grinning. His thoughts started spinning as he envisioned the perfect girl.   
  
"Leave me to myself!" Myrtle shouted sadly.   
  
"What did I do to you?" James asked, turning his stool back into a toliet and pulling the cord on the light bulb. He stuffed the paper back into the envelope, shoved that into his pocket, and opened the door.   
  
He looked at himself in the mirror under ghostly dim lights and noticed dark circles under his eyes. 'Well,' he thought, 'everyone else is probably asleep already.' Glancing at his watch, James realized that it was eleven-thirty; far past curfew. He headed out of Myrtle's bathroom and back towards Gryffindor tower.   
  
  
*   
  
  
Lily's eyes were open. She stared at the velvet that on the top of her bed and draped the outside edges around her. She was surrounded in darkness, except for her wand, which she had lit a while back. The time was almost midnight, she guessed.   
  
But all she could think about was the letter and how Melissya had probably read it hours ago. It made her look extremely desperate, being the reply to a personals ad and all. Well, she hadn't counted on the Herald replying; it was all a joke to her—until the letter came, that is. The letter was the root of all her problems.   
  
Now she couldn't sleep, and she had classes the next morning. Her teachers would wonder why she was sleeping in class, and she had Potions first on Tuesdays; and any thoughts of sleeping through Tuesday and go to class was pointless, she had Potions last on Wednesdays. Ugh, she thought, rolling her eyes. If only Gryffidors didn't have Potions on Tuesday with Ravenclaws, then everything would be normal. The last thing she needed right now was Dan Michetti to come talk to her when she was going on a blind date in just a few days, with some guy who probably looked a lot more like Crabbe or Goyle than Lucius Malfoy—remotely cute because of his piercing blue-gray eyes. Slytherins, her other pet peeve (it didn't help that they had Wednesday Potions with them). Her first was now whoever her date turned out to be.   
  
Lily laughed for a moment. She almost felt sorry for her date. She had made up all sorts or information about herself for the form, and exaggerated on things that were true, like her distant grandfather being Swedish, her height of 5' 6-1/4" and how she 'enjoyed Charm-work.' In truth, it was one of the things that came easiest to her—not like Transfiguration in which she could barely turn a knife into a quill, and even then it usually had razor sharp edges.   
  
Once, a few years ago, she had accidentally slitted her wrist while writing something in Hogsmeade with one of the razor-quills; only then she hadn't known that her quill was imperfect. Memories flooded her when she remembered who had stopped the bleeding and rushed her to the nearest adult.  
  
'Oh, I might as well go to sleep,' she thought quickly, willing the tears away. 'Melissya will find out tomorrow that the letter was a 'fake', courtesy of yours truly.' She buried the back of her head into the pillow, took one last look at the velvet top of her bed, and shut off her wand light.  
  
  
* 


	4. 

Visiting One of Saturn's Rings chapter 4 by shana shanaisme@hotmail.com aim: meshananotu  
  
books hp pre-1981 romance pg  
  
That night Lily dreamt of eyes. Not eyeballs, but eyes. They sat, embedded in faces with no features, all around her in the Great Hall. The tables had been stacked by the far wall, and the room was filled with her fellow students who were walking around and mingling. She looked around, talking to herself since no one else seemed to be able to hear her. "Where is everyone? What is up with this place?"  
  
At that, she had looked up at the ceiling, which was usually bewitched to look like the sky above it. It still was, but a pale blue sky was not dotted with fluffy marshmallow-like clouds. The sky was a dark, almost pitch-black shade of blue. Dark purples and rich blacks were splashed against it, giving it a sense of depth up to the heavens above. White lightning spread across they sky every few seconds, and there seemed to be thunder resonating around her. Just then, she realized it was raining. Dollops of water splashed around and on her. Her hair was soaked, and her robes were dragging behind her. She took them off and let them fall to her feet, like many of those around her already seemed to have done. She was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, unfortunately white but it didn't really register. She was looking at something else. Someone else.  
  
A pair of green eyes ahead of Lily beckoned her, and she went toward them—sloshing her way through the highering floodwaters. The looked as if they were glowing, and they seemed to have some sort of energy pulling her towards them. Unruly black hair sat sprawled on the person's head, with bangs almost long enough to cover the green-ness of the eyes. The eyes were the brightest things around her; brighter than the lightning, the pale skin of those around her. Everything.  
  
It came across her mind for a moment that she was possibly going insane. Years of hanging around the wrong crowd were finally catching up to her. The next moment, however, the eyes and their brightness were all she could think of. They overcame her thoughts, her senses. Animal magnetism. Femme fatale—er, the guy version of femme fatale. What was it, testosterone? The lapse in her concentration on the eyes let her give in to her surroundings and acknowledge the momentary dullness in the sky and the people.  
  
Suddenly, someone—or something—stepped in front of her. The face had sharp blue—no: gray, almost silver eyes, a color she felt compelling enough to stop in her tracks. Platinum hair was sticking up everywhere in what looked to be a purposeful way. Obviously the person used magicked hair gel to get their hair to stay up even in the pouring rain.  
  
Then it all happened so fast; it felt like a movie or something. One minute she was standing still, rain falling around her, and the next she was madly kissing the face with the gray eyes. The face seemed to have sprouted lips and a nose in the nanoseconds it took her to put her arms around its body.  
  
She woke up then. Later (during her solitary breakfast), Lily analyzed the dream with her sometimes scary ability to remember dreams photographically, ignoring the odd symbolism. She laughed out loud at the ending. Of course, people had looked at her as if she were a madwoman, but she was used to that by now.  
  
  
*  
  
  
James glared at Lucius Malfoy, who was smirking so broadly James was sure his mouth would fall off his face. If only that would happen; if only that had happened two hours previously. Then everything would be okay and James's life would be normal again.  
  
You see, Malfoy had taken the liberty of asking Brianna to the big Homecoming bash, and Brianna had the audacity to accept his offer. It was as if she hadn't even noticed James planning out his speech and responses to any reaction she would have, even the ever popular "I-don't-even-like-you-loser, bug-off" look. But James had been pretty sure Brianna would agree to go with him. After all, he was only the most popular boy in their grade. Who would want to turn him down?  
  
"I don't care if the Homecoming dance is going to be in two days; you will pay attention in class and there will be a test during class on Friday!" Gownes, the Potions professor exclaimed loudly to the whole class, disrupting James's flow of ideas. Upset opinions were voiced all around the dungeon, angrily whispered to those around them. "And for that, Slytherin and Gryffindor will lose ten points each. Fifteen, thanks to the redhead in the back!"  
  
Everyone turned and looked at the 'redhead in the back.' It was Lily Evans, James's fellow Gryffindor seventh year. She was looking around in utter surprise; James guessed she had been sleeping because from his table three ahead of hers he could see lines on her face that were undoubtedly marks from pressing her head against her books.  
  
"Hey, that's not fair. She didn't do anything wrong!" James said to Professor Gownes. James could feel his friends staring at him without looking.  
  
Gownes raised his eyebrows so high they seemed to be enveloped by his blonde hair. "It isn't, is it? Well, siding with Evans now, are we Potter?"  
  
James could feel his cheeks tinge as he replied. "Yes, I am, and I'm sure much of the rest of the class will agree with me now." James was afraid to look around; he knew that no one would voice their opinion on the matter from fear that Gownes would give them detention. Normally, nobody really cared about detention because they were scheduled so frequently that teachers were running out of ideas for punishments, but now it was too close to Homecoming and everyone was sure Gownes would assign the detention for Friday night.  
  
"Well, your classmates seem to be close behind you, Mr. Potter." Just then, the bell rang signaling th end of class. Gownes continued anyway. "Stop by my desk after class, Potter. We need to arrange something." Sympathetic looks were flashed at James as he turned against the flow of the students pouring out of the dungeon. I knew it, he thought. Why did I have to go off like that without even thinking of the consequences? Of course, thinking of an action's consequences was not something James was famous for, but it struck him as annoying that this day could not get any worse. As soon as he thought that, he frantically tried to un-think it; everyone knows that a phrase like that jinxes everything.  
  
Upon reaching the desk, James rid his mind of all thoughts and tried to make his eyes look as blank as possible. Gownes looked as if he wanted to finish this conversation as fast as possible. He started speaking in a matter of seconds.  
  
"Listen, Potter, I want to get this over with as quickly as possible."  
  
"So do I," James replied. "Talk on."  
  
"Dumbledore wants me to supervise this Homecoming event—sort of like a chaperone if you will. I am supposed to ski around like an idiot and reprimand students who are misbehaving. However, I don't want to. It's utter nonsense to do that because everyone will just continue what they are doing. That is why I want you to take over my position. Dumbledore will not be here this weekend (he's got meetings with the governers) but McGonagall will be upset. Just tell her I think a student monitor will do more effect than a boring old teacher. Feel free to tweak with the speech if you wish to. Alright, got it?"  
  
"Yes, sir."  
  
"Good. That will be all." James started to walk away, but he caught a wisp of Gownes muttering to himself: "...Evans will be boycotting it again and I won't miss anything."  
  
Those cryptic words stuck in James's head for the rest of the evening and all through their study hour. He couldn't understand what exactly Gownes had been saying.  
  
  
*  
  
  
The next day, Lily had History of Magic for the first time that week. She sat in History of Magic listening to Professor Binns drone on. Ugh, she thought, I don't care if Binns has magical eyesight; I'm going to do my Care of Magical Creatures homework. She looked around her, wary of a teacher's pet (hey, even the most annoying of teachers have them). Seeing none, she opened her CAMC book. What was inside she was definitely not prepared for.  
  
Melissya had slipped the letter, crumpled in the middle as it had been before, into Lily's CAMC book.  
  
"Whoa," Lily said aloud. Professor Binns looked at her as if he had never been interrupted in all the years he had taught at Hogwarts, living and dead. He continued, but not before he could add a brief comment.  
  
"That certainly is so. When the Australian Muggles found out about magic and our kind, it was a surprise. Fortunately, a shark bit their appendages off while surfing and both Muggles bled to death. There was mourning, but it was a relief to many on our side." He then started speaking about Wizard vacationing areas that are unmappable.  
  
Lily stared at the letter. She had thought Melissya to be just another bee in the hive, another one of the wannabe preps speaking and acting exactly like everyone else around them. She also realized that she had forgotten about the letter during all of Tuesday and she hadn't spoken to Melissya about anything at all.  
  
It turned out that Melissya was just the opposite of Lily's image of her. Even Monday night she had seemed a bit out of it. Well, maybe she really doesn't gossip, Lily concluded. But there were people Melissya hung out with, like some Hufflepuffs and the occasional Gryffindor. I think I just found my new best friend.  
  
Actually, Lily didn't do 'the best friend thing.' At least, not since her fourth year when she detached herself from the crowd and gave up all of her old, popular friends. Back then her circle of gal pals was a tightly knit group, comprised of four Gryffindors (including herself) and two Ravenclaws. They were the ones everyone younger than thou tried to befriend and everyone older thought about every so often. Hip on the music and theater scene, anyone with an entertainment question came to them. In fact, numerous bets were placed on whether Lily and her friends would actually answer the question. If they associated with any of the wrong people, they could lose their popularity. It was a long, hard, and often times confusing way of living.  
  
How Lily could consider those people her friends was beside her. As soon as she and her then-boyfriend broke up, no one had spoken to her at all. She received not a single owl, nor a piece of Muggle mail, or even a phone call. Even though it was the last day of the term, there was nobody who stepped through the barrier with her when they got off the Hogwarts Express. When her father greeted her and helped put all of her luggage on a trolley, she was very near tears but held them in. Her eyes felt as if they would explode; she just looped her arm around her father's as she would have any other time and shut her eyelids, letting him lead her.  
  
That voice inside told her she was going to be alright. She didn't want to believe it. She refused to believe it.   
  
Her summer went as though as it were any other summer, except the only people she hung out with were her Muggle friends. Once or twice she saw someone from Hogwarts, at the mall or public library or someone's party. They ignored her though, unless it was a head boy or girl who hadn't taken the train back to London after the year was over.  
  
Come September, she had not wanted to go back to school, but decided that just because some people would ignore her it didn't need to interfere with her education. For a while, the only thing keeping her from dropping out was graduation. She had never been suicidal, but many thought she still was. Lily realized that life went on even if the worst happened, and many people had had it worse than her.  
  
Now, she was quite all right and normal again. She drifted between friends, never settling on one for fear that they would stop supporting her. Perhaps, she thought while remniscing, Melissya could be a new friend. A good friend—unlike Riky.  
  
  
*  
  
  
During Quidditch practice that evening James flew sluggishly. He was tired for some reason, and no one was yelling at him to pick up the pace. They all also had other things on their minds; things like tests, homework, and the biggest: Homecoming. But running through James's head was a different thought.  
  
Who was it?  
  
James had realized that the only person who could have been his perfect match must be the same age as him, or somewhere around it. The only wizarding folk who were seventeen and lived by Hogsmeade were students at Hogwarts. A simple process of elimination helped him deduce that he knew who his date was going to be already, which was weird because it was supposed to be a blind date.  
  
But who could could it be?  
  
"Okay, obviously no one is really paying attention to the game today, so let's call it quits." The whole team gave a united sigh of relief, and the Gryffindor Captain rolled his eyes as he slowly flew towards the ground of the Quidditch Pitch.  
  
"That has got to be one of the few times I actually agreed with what Michael decided to do," Sirius said, looping around James and grinning.  
  
"I know the feeling." After taking quick showers and changing, the team headed back to their common room. Sirius and James talked about their last game, which had happened two weeks earlier and had been against Ravenclaw. It had been an easy victory, because the Ravenclaw team only had a few good players and the rest were just mediocre. As they walked through the opening behind the Fat Lady to the Gryffindor common room, James told Sirius that he was tired and didn't feel like staying in the common room for a few more hours. Sirius shrugged him a good night and went to the corner where all of the other seventh years were. On impulse James looked around for Lily, before he shook his head clear and climbed up to his dormitory.  
  
  
* 


	5. 

Visiting One of Saturn's Rings chapter 5 by shana shanaisme@yahoo.com aim: meshananotu  
  
books hp pre-1981 romance pg  
  
"It's tonight," someone said. Walking to the Great Hall for their free period, James wildly looked around at those near him. How did they know? Tonight it would be Thursday night, and on Thursday night he had to sneak into Hogsmeade for his 'blind date' courtesy of the Hogsmeade Herald.  
  
Blind date. Who invented that phrase? It was so stupid. It gave off the impression that the daters were going to be blindfolded or something and had to rely completely on sound and touch. He laughed at the visual it gave him and almost stopped walking. /I'm over here you idiot!/ \Sorry, I can't see you.\  
  
"What's so funny?"  
  
Still laughing, James gasped, "What if people tried to kiss while they were blindfolded?"  
  
Having handed off the mental image, James stopped laughing and was now choking on his own breath. His friend Dan was next to him, almost rolling from the picture in his head. "Damn, we have got to get someone to try that!"   
  
"I know, man!" Nearing the Great Hall, James quieted, still discussing the image he and Dan now shared. "I can just see it; the girl yelling at him for not being where she was."  
  
"Oh, see I thought their hands being tied together too, so they looked like those annoying little pecking birds they sell in souvenir shops."  
  
This picture now in James's head, he started laughing out loud, halting the quiet rumble of the student body's voices. "Sorry," he said, sitting down near the middle of the Gryffindor table. Seeing a flash of auburn hair go by, he called out "Lily!" about to tell her about the pecking birds. She stopped and turned around, the surprise clearly shining through her eyes. James tinted pink. "Oh, er, never mind."  
  
"James Potter," a loud voice suddenly sounded, "would you please come here?" Professor McGonagall was standing at the entrance to the Great Hall.  
  
Not afraid of trouble, James shrugged and stood back up. "Pass it on!" he whispered to Dan, who silently laughed as he nodded and turned towards their good friend Sirius Black.  
  
As he walked back to the entrance, he tried to think of why McGonagall wanted him this time. He hadn't done anything wrong or reprimandable in a long while: it had been at least a week and a half since his last detention. Maybe he had done something good in Transfiguration, it was one of his strengths. Nah, it was probably just her telling him that his 'perfect-ness' had finally gotten to her and she was awarding him with a Head Boy badge. He chuckled at the absurdity of that last thought as he reached the doors.   
  
"Yes, Professor?" James asked. When she looked at him, bewildered, he added, "You wanted to tell me something?" Understanding flashed over her face and she nodded, starting to walk out of the Great Hall.  
  
"James, I would like to speak with you about your grades." For a few moments there was a silence as James followed her, as if she were trying to put her words in a way that James would actually do what she told him to do. She finally continued: "As you must know, you are in the above-average percentage of students in your year. However, for the last few years your Charms grade has not been Proficient, nor is it Average or Minimal; it is Poor. You know as well as I do that even with 4 points in all of your classes and 1 point in only one of them, it brings your whole grade down to a two-and-a-half, which is classified as Minimal.   
"I'm sure neither you nor your parents would like to see you that low on the Hogwarts grading scale when all of us know you can do much better. I advise you to ask Professor Flitwick for extra help, or maybe ask one of your fellow students to tutor you. Do something, James; anything." She seemed to lose the pleading voice and regain her composure for a moment as she stopped and took a few deep breaths.   
  
"As your head of house, I regret to give you that information. I suggest you go back to your dorm and collect your Charms things and start studying for your finals, even if they are many months away."  
  
Having said nothing during McGonagall's speech, James now put in a quick, "Yes, Professor. Thank you for speaking to me so early in the year."  
  
"You're welcome, Mr. Potter. Hurry along, now." She started towards her office. James waited for her to turn the next corner before spinning around and running to the Gryffindor tower.   
  
Maybe if he just studied for one day McGonagall would get off his case—but any day other than today. Right now, he had to get to the tower and change. He had almost forgotten about going to Hogsmeade, but when McGonagall had told him to hurry along it had all come back to him in a jiffy.  
  
He slowed down a few feet away from the Fat Lady. Hearing footsteps, he stepped behind a statue of Henry the Hurtler, legendary Banisher and Summoner. It was Lily Evans, the girl he had called out to in the Great Hall. 'Maybe she'll just walk past,' he thought. She did, but not without speaking loudly to herself.  
  
"Charms is easy, Arithmancy is easy, Astronomy is easy, CAMC is easy, DADA is easy, Trans is hard. So, that's what I need to study. Bloody old Transfiguration. A stupid class, it is."  
  
James watched her go into the Gryffindor tower before following her through the portrait hole. Once inside, she seemed to have disappeared. 'She's probably studying. Funny, Transfiguration is one of the easiest classes,' James thought as he walked up to his dormitory. 'I'm surprised Lily's having troubles in it—not that I care.' He went into the room he shared with the other Gryffindor seventh years and opened his trunk, looking for the suit he had packed for graduation.   
  
"Guess this'll be used more than once this year," he said aloud as he held up the black suit and gave it a once over. Carefully folding it, he put it in his bookbag so he could change into it once he got into Hogsmeade. Then he closed his trunk and stepped back, checking to see if he had forgotten anything as he slung the bookbag diagonally over his shoulder.  
  
He had. He didn't know where this date was going to happen.  
  
He went up to his bedside table and opened its drawer. Sifting through the contents, James finally found the letter he had received from the Hogsmeade Herald. As he skimmed it, the name of the restaurant practically jumped out at him: Le Champagne. 'Well, time to go.' He grabbed his Invisibility Cloak (a necessity everytime he snuck out of the castle) from on top of the canopy of his bed, threw it on, and headed out of the Gryffindor tower on his way to the statue of the witch with one eye.  
  
  
*  
  
  
"Wow. What a difference brown makes." Lily analyzed her looks in the mirror of the seventh year girls' bathroom. She had just used magic to dye her hair brown, and it seemed to change her whole profile: her skin looked less pale, her became eyes a deeper emerald color, and her nose looked a hint smaller (not that it mattered; her nose was already normal sized).  
  
She picked up the paper she had written the spell on and crumpled it up, tossing it into the wastebasket. Walking over to her bed, she smoothed it out before falling on it face forward. 'What should I wear?' she thought. She got up off the bed and went to her trunk, opening it and going through what she had in there.  
  
Near the bottom she found a dark blue elegant dress. She had put it in there anticipating wearing it to graduation, but it came in handy in a moment like this. Gently pulling it out, she looked it over. It was long and almost perfectly straight—only a few well placed triangles of fabric were stitched in to allow her to walk. There were no sleeves, and there was a neck that was more of a horizontal slit for her head to slip through. It was made of a satiny-silky material. Looking at the tag, Lily realized that it indeed was silk.  
  
"Better not spill anything tonight," she told herself sternly. She found the matching pair of high-heeled shoes and put them in her bookbag, carefully slipping the dress into the bag on top of the shoes. Closing her trunk, Lily stepped back and stared at it, making sure she didn't forget anything.  
  
She had. She didn't know where this date was going to take place.  
  
She went to her nightstand and opened the drawer that was in it, going through it to find the letter she had received from the Hogsmeade Herald. Finally, she did. She looked for the name of a restaurant and found it near the top: Le Champagne. 'What a dumb name,' she thought. 'How original of the owners.' Lily put the letter in her bag in case she needed it once she got to Hogsmeade. She grabbed some lipstick and mascara from the drawer and closed it, having nothing further that she needed from it.  
  
'Okay, now I have everything.' She left the Gryffindor tower and swiftly made her way towards the statue of the one-eyed witch.  
  
  
* 


End file.
